If players don’t quite feel like they want to putter around with finding items and solving puzzles in adventure game Karma Incarnation 1, killing someone can be a viable solution. It will just weigh down the player’s karma, causing later creatures to alter their reactions to them, changing the story.
Pip, the main character of Karma Incarnation 1, wanted to save his beloved after she is kidnapped by evil spirits. To do so, he needed to be reincarnated as a dragon, but failed to do so, becoming a worm instead. Now, he must roam a surreal, psychedelic countryside, helping the people within it while being bound by the laws of karma.
Players will come across people who need help in their journey, and Pip can choose how to approach this. He can use an Astral Sight power to gain a little bit of insight on events and the world/characters around him, getting useful tips on how to progress. From there, Pip can choose the correct actions needed to help out a given character, which may be complicated, or he can choose simpler, more violent solutions, like killing the person who won’t let him pass without doing something. It’s up to the player what to do in each encounter, offering several ways around each puzzle.
If players get a little too comfortable killing the bizarre beings that get in their way, their karma will begin to grow more evil, changing Pip’s appearance, as well as how future characters react to him. Likewise, good actions will purify Pip, also making the other characters behave differently around him. Players will need to manage this system as they work their way through this colorful reality, balancing impatience with the consequences of acting on those feelings.
Karma Incarnation 1 is available now on Android and Steam, and is heading to iOS in the future.
